


I want to be Number Four

by Unicorn32442



Series: Apocalypse averted au [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Body Swap, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, No Incest, Not my fault Luther said he wished he was klaus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:48:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26020678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unicorn32442/pseuds/Unicorn32442
Summary: Welp, you asked for it LutherMuahahahahahahaBasically a mission goes wrong and Five's powers malfunctions and Klaus and Luther switch bodies
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, The Hargreeves Family
Series: Apocalypse averted au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888609
Comments: 26
Kudos: 211





	1. Carefree

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an au where the apocalypse is averted, please see the series summary for details
> 
> I have the rest of this planned out but I wanted to see how the first chapter did before I wrote the rest.

“Klaus!”

Luther waited impatiently by the door, not quite sure what else to do. No one else was home except Klaus, and Luther needed some backup on this mission. But on the other hand, this was Klaus, and Luther was afraid of what he might walk in on. He knocked on the door again.

  
“Klaus, come on!”

He sighed. Luther loved his brother, but he didn’t understand him. Klaus always seemed so distant, in his own world, carefree. Luther used to think it was the drugs, but Klaus was sober (or so he says) and he hadn’t changed. He still didn’t take things seriously or pay attention. He spent all his time in his room just like when they were kids, except he didn’t go out as often since he didn’t go to bars anymore. Luther wished he was able to just drift away like that sometimes. To not care what anyone said about him. To be entertained by a ball of yarn and some knitting needles. To feel comfortable in any setting.

Luther wouldn’t ever admit it, but he envied his brother’s nonchalance.

He knocked again, but Klaus still didn’t answer. Luther was not going on this mission alone. Never again. So he braced himself, took a deep breath, and opened the door to see…

...Klaus laying on the floor with headphones staring at the ceiling. It coulda been worse.

“Uh…Klaus?” Klaus didn’t move. “Klaus!” 

Luther looked at his watch, unsure of what to do. He tentatively stepped forward and nudged Klaus’s side with his foot.

“AH!” He jumped up immediately and looked terrified until he saw who it was. “Oh, Luther. Jeez, you scared the shit out of me! My poor old heart can’t take these jumpscares.” Klaus stared off into space for a second, before giggling to himself like he just made a joke that only he understood. “...can’t take jumpscares, ha.”

“Klaus, focus. We have to go.” Luther turned to leave, but Klaus didn’t move. 

“Is the world ending again? Cuz if not, I’d really rather sit this one out.” He slumped down on his bed and examined his nails.

“Come on, there’s a mission and no one else is here. You have to come.” Was Klaus really this lazy?

“What am I even gonna do? Not sure if you noticed, big guy, but my powers are pretty much useless.” He kept looking at his nails. Luther cleared his throat.

“Klaus, get up. You’re coming.” Luther looked down at his watch and his eyes widened when he saw how late they were.

Klaus glanced up at Luther and sighed. “Yeah, ok. Lets go.” They walked toward the elevator doors when Klaus tensed up. “...How about we take the stairs?”

“Why would we take the stairs? We’re in a rush, Klaus.” 

“Why are you standing in front of the elevator like idiots?” Five. Thank god, someone who understood efficiency.

“Because we need to go on a mission. Like twenty minutes ago.” Luther looked at Klaus impatiently.

“Elevators are super overrated. I like stairs.” Klaus crossed his arms.

“I thought you hated exercise.” Five said, frowning.

“I’m complicated.” He sat down criss cross on the floor. Luther felt like he was going to puke.

“Stand up so I can teleport you, asshole.” Five grabbed Klaus’s bicep and dragged him up with a surprising amount of force. Luther put a hand on Five’s shoulder and when he blinked they were in the back of a taxi. After the driver calmed down, Luther told him the address and tried to form a plan. 

* * *

The mission was more dangerous than he thought it would be.

* * *

The robbers had a bomb. Five was injured. He reached for Luther and Klaus, summoned all the energy he had left in him, and teleported them just outside the blast radius.

Luther felt sick and disoriented. He looked down at his hand, but it wasn’t his. It was small and thin, with long, slender fingers and bright pink nails.


	2. Wake up to something that isn’t quite you anymore

When Klaus woke up, he felt better than he had in a long time. For the first time since the drugs, there were no ghosts and no withdrawals. He hadn’t had any nightmares. Just peace and quiet. For a minute he just sighed and didn’t open his eyes. Klaus had been dealing with a lot of bullshit lately, so even if he didn’t know what was happening, the silence was welcome. Of course, all the noise would be worth enduring once he finally conjured Dave, but until then sobriety was a struggle.

Klaus shifted his head slightly. Wherever he was, it was brightly lit and he wished he could pull the blanket up over his face to block out the light. But his arms felt so heavy.

He ignored that for now because, as much as he didn’t want to move, he felt like he was forgetting something urgent. Did he set something on fire again before falling asleep…

He opened his eyes. Five.

“Hey, Luther. You’re finally awake. How are you feeling?” Allison’s voice was nice. 

Klaus looked around to try to figure out where he was, but he was too dizzy and tired. He could somewhat make out Allison sitting next to him. He didn’t see any of his brothers, but Allison said that Luther was awake so he must be there somewhere.

“Hey, I’m awake too Alli. And I’m feeling fantastic, thanks for aski- Why the hell are my hands so big?” Klaus looked down at his hands, which were gigantic. The flesh on the back of his arms and hands was thick, leathery, and hairy. They almost looked like…

“What the fuck!”

“Luther, are you feeling ok? Why did you call me Alli?” Allison put a hand on his arm, which made him panic even more.

“I’m not Luther, Alli!”

“What, I-” Allison narrowed her eyes. “Klaus?!” 

“Holy shiiiit…”

He examined his arms frantically, and vaguely registered that he was in Luther’s room. Although that would make sense, since apparently he was Luther now. 

“Klaus, is that seriously you?” Allison seemed to be trying to figure out if this was a joke.

“Well apparently, I’m Luther now, and he’s always serious so…”   
  


“DIEGO, VANYA”

Klaus couldn’t believe this. What was his life? He snickered in disbelief. “This can’t be happening…”

Pretty soon, Vanya and Diego were there and Allison was trying to explain the situation. Klaus had graduated from snickering to outright hysterical laughter. Except he sounded like that one time Luther got high, which was freaking him out and making him laugh harder. Ben would probably tell him to calm down so he could hear what his siblings were talking about, but Ben wasn’t here (oh shit Ben isn’t here). Klaus was wheezing and coughing now. Ben would probably also go check on Five and Luther for him.

“Klaus. Hey, look at me.” Diego put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you hurt?”   
  
“...no..” Klaus spit out through laughter. He looked around at his siblings' serious faces and cleared his throat. “No, I’m not hurt. Unless you count Luther’s terrible fashion taste-”   
  
Allison, satisfied with this answer, turned to Vanya and Diego. “Is Klaus the only one awake?” (Rude to interrupt people).

“Yeah, but if he’s awake then Luther will probably be awake soon, too.” Diego answered. None of them were even looking at Klaus now.

“Then we should be there when he wakes up.” Vanya added. “If he-”   
  
“I was still talking…” Klaus mumbled grumpily, although his siblings ignoring him wasn’t anything new. What was new, however, was all of them turning to look at him. Did he say that louder than he usually did? 

“Sorry, what were you saying?” Allison asked, looking genuine and a little bit confused.    
  
“Oh, um.” Klaus had their full attention. “Well, I… How’s Five?”

“He’s ok. He broke his ankle, but he should be awake soon.” Vanya sat down at the foot of Luther’s bed. 

Klaus wanted to sit up, now. It was a little bit difficult to talk to people while he was laying down. But his limbs and chest felt ridiculously heavy. Was this how Luther felt when he first woke up after his accident?

Allison was helping him up when a panicked shout echoed through the apartment. Luther was awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luther POV next here we go


	3. Trust me, you don’t want that

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yay angst

Luther was having the strangest nightmare of his life. 

He was staring at a man he’d never met before, dressed in army fatigues. The man was named Dave, although Luther wasn’t sure how he knew that. Luther himself was different too, his body felt smaller and weaker. He was wearing army fatigues too, with a helmet and dog tags.

Dave was smiling at him warmly. He smiled back. It felt oddly like a memory, but Luther was sure that he’d never seen this man in his life before. 

But then the dream changed moods drastically. Suddenly Dave was lying on the floor, choking on blood, a gaping wound in his chest. There were gunshots all around, but Luther set aside his gun to try to help the fallen soldier. He felt tears running down his face and could hear a voice begging Dave to stay alive, but it couldn’t be Luther’s. Luther felt much more confused than sad.

Then the dream took an even more nightmarish turn. Suddenly Luther was a small child, sitting on the floor curled up against the wall. He didn’t recognize the room he was in, it was too dark to see his hand in front of his face. But then something came out of the light, corpses too terrifying that Luther couldn’t believe his own brain made them up. The glowed with a bluish hue and screamed at him. 

Luther screamed right back.

Maybe if he hadn’t been so distracted, he would’ve noticed that they were repeating one specific name, over and over again.

He woke up yelling.

After a moment he calmed down, then felt an overwhelming wave of deja vu. He had been on a mission that he didn’t remember ending, he was waking up alone, and his body…

...wasn’t his. Again.

“Shit.”

But there was one thing that was different. Someone who’d died a long time ago was talking to him.

“Klaus, calm down, it’s okay. Five is fine, I checked. Luther looked good too, but I don’t think he’s woken up yet. Are you feeling okay?”

“Ben?”

“I’m here, Klaus.” It was actually Ben. He was actually talking to Ben again. But something didn’t make sense.

“Klaus?” Luther asked him.

“Shit. Please don’t tell me you forgot who you are again.” Ben started pacing back and forth. “Ok, what worked last time. Herbal tea, and...and um....fuck I can’t remember.”

“Ben what are you talking about? I didn’t-”

  
“Luther! Hey, are you okay?” Luther sighed in relief as Allison rushed into the room, followed by Diego and Vanya.

“Allison, what the hell is going on? How is Ben here?” He stared at Ben in wonder, still not quite believing that he was actually there. Ben looked almost more confused than Luther felt.

“Ok, Luther, we don’t really know how but…” She sat down on his bed, while Diego and Vanya hovered a little awkwardly in the doorway. “...You kinda switched bodies with Klaus.”

“Oh…”

Luther suddenly felt sick. Really sick. Allison handed him a small trash can to puke into. 

  
“Ugh… is Klaus sick or something?”

Ben sat down on the bed next to Allison. “It’s withdrawals.”

  
“I’m in Klaus’s body.” Saying it out loud helped him believe it a little more. “I’m in Klaus’s body.

“K- Luther are you feeling okay?” Diego asked.

“I’m fine, I guess. I had the strangest dream though, I was in the army and…” Luther trailed off. Ben was the only one still looking at him.

Diego, Allison, and Vanya were talking about Luther as if he wasn’t sitting right in front of them.

“Guys, I was still talking.”

They ignored him.

Ben sighed. “Yeah, that kinda happens to Klaus a lot. But you could tell me about your weird dream, I guess.” 

“Well...ok. I was in the army with this guy named Dave, and then-”

  
Ben’s eyes widened. “You dreamed about Dave?!” 

“Yeah, do you know him?” Luther tried to ignore everything and focus on Ben. This was a rare chance to talk to him, and he wasn’t going to mess it up.

“No, but Klaus did. Wait, if you can see me, I should probably warn you about-”   
  


A loud wail echoed through the room, making Luther jump. He turned to face a creature straight from his own nightmares. Or, Klaus’s nightmares? It didn’t matter, there was a corpse staring at him. Same bloody, horrifying face, same bluish hue, same screaming.

He scrambled away from it, but his limbs felt too small to carry his weight. Did Klaus always feel this...frail? 

Luther looked around the room, but his three siblings somehow didn’t see the wailing creature that appeared out of nowhere. It lunged straight toward Luther. He punched, but his fist went straight through the-

“It’s a ghost, Luther. You can’t punch it.” Ben sighed and tried to push the ghost away, but it wasn’t cooperating. “Just try to ignore it.”

“How am I supposed to ignore that? What is happening? I need to get Klaus to teach me how to banish them”

“Actually, about that-”   
  


“What?”

“You can’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the comments. Sorry this took awhile to post.


	4. Blood like lemonade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So how are we feeling?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been a looooong time since I posted. I’ve been busy with school and shit and lack of motivation but I’m back now. Sorry it took me so long to get this out. Updates are probably gonna have more time in between them now.

Klaus really didn’t want to get up, but he was getting kinda bored just sitting in Luther’s bed. Plus for the first time in a while he didn’t feel like complete and utter shit because of withdrawals, mental health issues, and ghosts so he kinda wanted to enjoy that for a little while. 

Klaus was feeling lucky and unlucky at the same time, which was weird. On the one hand, he had stumbled upon a cure for almost every problem in his life. He didn’t have any nightmares and that intense soul crushing anxiety that happened every once in a while seemed to be gone. His siblings were actually listening to him for once, and without any ghosts here he wasn’t too distracted to participate in the conversation. Not that he really  _ wanted _ to participate in their boring conversations, but it was nice to have the option to. His withdrawals were gone, so no more tiredness, puking, or dizziness. But best of all there were no more ghosts. Klaus’s world was more quiet than it had been in a long time. 

So he should be feeling great.

But he was also currently in Luther’s body, which was hella weird. He had seriously underestimated how heavy his brother’s torso was. His limbs and chest felt huge and he felt like he couldn’t move without knocking someone over. Klaus’s body had this constant feeling of wrong, and he missed his old one. His old one looked so fantastic, but now he felt like an fucking orangutan. Plus his nails were disturbingly bare. Although if he thought about nail polish, then he would think about eye liner, which would lead to him thinking about his face. Luther’s face. Yep, just gonna not think about the nails. 

So this was incredibly weird. Although to be honest, for Klaus this was only slightly weird. For the Hargreeves, it was pretty much just another Tuesday.

Oh, and there was the not being able to see Ben thing. But Klaus is ignoring that for now.

But putting all that aside (Klaus was proud of his skills in suppressing emotions), he was bored and anxious. So, might as well try to take a walk or something.

He felt like a character in a horror movie or something as he walked down the hall. If he was still in his other body, he would’ve called it a stroll. But Luther’s footsteps were heavy. His huge shoulders filled up the hallway with no possibility for blending into the shadows. 

“This is fine.” Klaus stated to the air. It was a natural outburst, but his voice felt deeper and strange, like a second puberty or something. Except instead of getting hotter like Klaus did the first time, he just got bigger and more awkward. Although the weirdest part was that no one answered him. There was no super annoying, secretly loving ghost to step through the wall and make an irritating, sarcastic remark.

He paused as he arrived in the living room. He’d made it to the end of the hall much faster than he thought he would. It was creepy how much bigger he was now.

“Luther, what-” Diego started from behind him. Klaus swiveled around and noticed that Allison had apparently elbowed him in the ribs.

“Klaus, where are you going?” She asked, pointedly looking at Diego as she said Klaus’s name.

“Just, you know, testing out the new car.” He resisted the urge to cringe at the sound of his voice. His arms felt stupid just hanging limp by his sides, but moving them felt unnatural. 

Diego cleared his throat. “Um...we thought maybe you should talk to Luther-” 

“No, no, no, it’s fine. I just...need a snack first because apparently Luther is always hungry.” That sentence didn’t really feel right, but Klaus was, for once, trying not to talk very much. The wrong voice coming out of him was so damn offputting.

“Ok.” Allison spoke with a softer tone than before. “I’ll make you some food.”   
  


“Wonderful.” 

Klaus felt like he was being swallowed by the silence that followed. He was never gonna get used to it being so quiet.

**

“You could try moving rooms. Sometimes they don’t like moving into different rooms.” Ben sat down on the bed, frowning nervously at the ghost.

Luther was speechless.

“Yeah, I think a walk would definitely help you, come on. Get up.” Ben stood up and gestured for Luther to follow him. It took a minute.

Luther felt so tiny. Klaus wasn’t that small, but he was smaller than Luther had been even before his accident. He felt weak. He stood shakily leaning heavily on the bedpost. “....why is walking so difficult…”

  
“Well, um Klaus is still having some withdrawals so that’s something. His limbs and muscles are a lot smaller than you’re used to. You’re probably in shock from the ghost. Klaus could’ve been mildly injured without noticing during the mission. Klaus gets a little shaky sometimes from anxiety and stuff so it’s possible that all his mental health issues have been transferred to you. It could be-”   
  
“Ben, look, I love you and I missed you a lot, but I’m gonna need you to stop talking because I have the biggest migraine I’ve ever had.” 

Luther would’ve felt guilty about snapping at Ben if his head didn’t hurt so bad right then. The ghost yelling in the corner only turned up the volume when it noticed the distress he was in. Did Klaus do something to piss off these ghosts or were they just like this?

Luther walked shakily toward the door and Ben followed silently until they reached Luther’s room, where Klaus probably was.

“You should probably talk to Klaus. I don’t know how helpful he’ll be but he can at least clear some things up.”

Luther sighed heavily. But he knew he could deal with this, he was the leader after all. Luther could get Klaus to help him. 

“Uh, Klaus?” The sound of his voice startled him as he opened the door. It sounded so wrong.

“He’s not in here.” Ben noted.

“Well, where’d he go?” 

“I dunno. He wanders around.” Ben was a little amused by this whole situation. Luther looked so uncomfortable which was funny to watch. Plus now that he knew about the ghosts maybe Klaus would actually TALK TO HIM about it. It was nice to talk to someone other than Klaus, too. Although he wasn’t able to check up on Klaus, which wasn’t good. He was probably going to do something stupid. 

Right on cue, there was a loud crashing sound from the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayyyyy chaos


	5. You’re all idiots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five is pissed at everyone as usual

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the number of chapters bc my original plan for this fic changed. This chapter is short but the next one should be longer.
> 
> Sry it’s been so long since I posted, I am a master level 16 procrastinator

Five knew something had gone wrong the moment he woke up. His leg was definitely broken, but more than that he felt more drained of his powers than usual. Although that did mean that he used his powers, so he must’ve managed to get Klaus and Luther out as well. But if that was the case, where were they?

“Five! You’re awake.” Vanya rushed into the infirmary. “How are you feeling?”   
  


“What is wrong with my leg?” He knew it was definitely broken, but if there was more than he needed to be informed of it now so he could decide what to do next.

“Oh, um, it’s just broken. But uh, I should probably tell you that-”

“Did we complete the mission?” He asked distractedly as he pulled back the blankets to examine his leg. It was wrapped in a thick cast and he noticed a pair of crutches leaning against the wall next to him. That would be annoying. Although it was possible he could use them as some sort of weapon. But fighting with only one capable foot was going to be a large setback. He would have to be on alert until it healed so that he wouldn’t be vulnerable if the commision attacked. At least he still had a gun hidden in his closet. 

  
“Well, not really, since the building blew up. But at least they didn’t win either.” Vanya smiled awkwardly and sat down in a chair next to him, which he found kind of annoying. He wasn’t an invalid in desperate need of company. However, he considered Vanya slightly pleasant company and he wanted to know more about the mission, so he decided to tolerate her pitying eyes.

“Something happened to Luther and Klaus though.” Vanya said with a frown.

  
“What happened? Are they-” He stopped himself. Asking useless questions would help no one. “Tell me the situation.” The request came out a bit sharper than he meant.

“Um… so they kinda switched bodies? We think it was because you teleported them while injured. Do you think you could fix it?”

“They  _ what _ ?” Five sat up immediately and swung his legs over the side of the bed, reaching for his crutches. 

“Wait, you’re supposed to rest-”   
  


“I need to speak to both of them immediately to evaluate the situation. All variables are needed for this equation. I’ve never teleported someone while injured before.” Five was struggling to stand but he had been in greater pain than this before.

“But do you think you can fix them?” Vanya asked, handing him a crutch that he could quite reach. 

“Of course I can fix them.”

===

“What the hell is going on here?” Five demanded.

“Klaus.” Allison answered, as if that explained everything.

“In my defense,” The idiot in question said from his position on the floor, surrounded by broken glass and a few pots and pans. “Luther is like, almost bigger than Diego’s ego.”

“Even in this crisis you have to keep insulting people, don’t you?” Allison, who was about to offer Klaus help getting up, pulled her hand away and stared at him with her disappointed mom stare.

“Excuse me, _you_ insult Diego _and me_ all the time, Miss Perfect.”

“Can we please focus!” Five was getting sick of this. And his leg hurt. “Klaus, get up. We need to figure this out.” 

Klaus groaned loudly, “I’m perfectly fine right where I am.”

Five was preparing a vicious retort that might get his simpleton brother to understand the importance of this situation. Unfortunately, he was interrupted by his other brother bursting through the door with a strangled, “Is eVerYOne OkaY??” as he slipped on a pan and came crashing to the floor as well. 

“Hey, don’t damage me!” 

Luther hissed in pain and grabbed the back of his skull, ignoring Klaus’s comment. “I heard a crash…”   
  


“We’re all fine,” Allison informed him, walking over to help him up. Five may or may not have rolled his eyes and muttered  _ dumbass _ under his breath. 

“Actually, we’re not. If you haven’t noticed I’m still laying on the floor, so-”   
  


“You can get up.” Allison said, but she helped him up anyway. 

“Everyone shut up. I need data. Meet me in the living room in twenty minutes.” Five turned to leave. “If you aren’t there, I will send Vanya after you.”

Five would’ve liked to ask them questions immediately, but he doubted anything would get done in their current state of mind. Leaning on his crutch, he picked up a notebook and pen on a nearby table and headed for the living room. Five loved his family, but he hated his family so goddamn much sometimes. Sitting down on the couch, he jotted down some questions to ask his brothers. 

  * _Have your abilities switched as well?_


  * Do you feel uncomfortable or disoriented?


  * Are your basic thought processes still functioning the same?


  * Do you have different natural instincts?



He ignored the doubt in his mind. He just needs to figure out this one equation so they can all move on with their lives.

Five minutes passed, then ten. By fifteen minutes they still weren’t there. After seventeen minutes the mission alarm blared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter will come soon maybe  
> Hope u enjoyed!


	6. How can the academy ever be an effective crime deterrent?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anxiety.
> 
> The mission is probably gonna take up more chapter then I though so imma just say 6/?

“There are innocents being held hostage at an abandoned warehouse downtown. The terrorists have threatened to shoot them if police show up, and are refusing to negotiate with anyone other than the mayor.” Diego had been the one to pick up the phone and hit the alarm. He was already tossing around one of his throwing knives in anticipation as he recited the situation. Informing the team of the problem like this made him feel a little bit too much like Luther, but he could ignore that for now. There were more important things to be thinking about. 

“Alright, let’s go.” Luther said, catching everyone off guard as he said his usual cheesy line in Klaus’s voice instead of his own. 

“Wait, should Five be going?” Asked Allison, earning an intense glare from Five (although they were all pretty much used to those by now), “He’s still hurt, he’s vulnerable.”

“I could fight better than you even if I had lost my entire leg.” He snarled, as he slowly stood up from his chair.

“No she’s right, Five. But he can’t stay here alone. He is vulnerable and the commission is still looking for us.” Diego reminded them. He was starting to pace restlessy.

They looked at each other for a while. This mission definitely required the whole team, but they could make due with less. 

“I can stay with him.” Vanya offered. “I’m not great at missions yet, anyway.”

In other circumstances they probably would’ve reassured her that she did great on missions, but seeing that time was of the essence they all nodded and moved on instead. Five groaned, muttering something about having more time to work out the equations, anyway.

“Alright, let’s go.” Luther repeated, either not realizing he’d already said the line or not caring. 

  
  


The four of them piled into the car, Diego at the wheel so he had something to do with his hands. Luther and Klaus were squished in together in the backseat. Klaus taking up a lot of space. Luther never truly realized how much he was crowding his siblings in the car.

Luther was feeling extremely crowded, and for some reason Klaus’s brain just absolutely hated feeling closed in. Was Klaus claustrophobic? It was so weird living in someone else’s brain, feeling someone else’s natural instincts. He kept zoning out and it was much more difficult for him to pay attention now. The ghosts were still constantly bothering him, although apparently none of them could keep up with the car, so that was nice. But there was still this constant noise in the back of his mind. A low, menacing mumbling that haunted his every thought. 

  
  


He also felt so uncomfortable with his surroundings. The car felt too small. It was too bright, but darkness would be so much worse. The traffic noise was too loud and sudden. Usually Luther would be more focused on his way to a mission, but right now he just wanted to go home. He had the sudden urge to do something with his hands so he gripped his seatbelt tightly, scratching at the rough material. The sound of his nails on the seatbelt was surprisingly grounding.

“Can you not, please?” Diego asked, glancing at Luther in the mirror.

“What?” His muscles tensed a little. God, was every moment of Klaus’s waking life just pure anxiety? Luther thought Klaus was the most relaxed and careless out of all of them. But right now Luther felt like his brain hated him.

“Quit it with the scratching sound, Klaus, it’s so annoying.” Diego answered.

“Luther.” Allison corrected, glancing at him. Diego muttered ‘whatever’ and glared at Luther a little.

Luther stopped immediately, settling for just holding the seat belt. But to his Luther was met with his own eyes looking concerned.

Klaus was looking at him sympathetically. Although Luther probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Klaus had literally experienced that exact moment countless times in his life. 

“Diego’s an asshole.” Ben said from the seat behind him. Luther gave a small chuckle and murmured an agreement. Unfortunately, Diego and Allison heard it.

“Did Ben say something?” Allison asked eagerly.

“Uh, yeah.”

“What did he say?” Diego didn’t exactly ask, a better word would probably be “questioned” or “interrogated”. 

Luther had to answer honestly, right? Ben would probably be offended if he didn’t.

“He said Diego’s an asshole.”

Diego scoffed, and even Allison rolled her eyes a little bit. Klaus was silent. 

“He didn’t say that Kla- Luther. Stop lying.” Diego accused.

“No he really said that.” Luther insisted, looking at Allison for backup.

“You don’t have to be rude, Luther.” She muttered. 

Ben hissed in sympathy as Luther looked at the floor. “Sorry man, they never want to believe that the dead guy said anything wrong. I mean, seriously, I’m not a saint that only speaks in poetry and proverbs.”

The silence settled in the car again, but it still was never quiet for Luther.

  
  
  


Klaus felt more clear minded than he had in a long time. 

He still felt that sense of wrongness ever lurking in the back of his mind as he tried to shift his arm and knocked an old can out of the cupholder, but he still felt clear minded.

He was breathing deeply, mind steady, focused on the mission. He was forming bits of plans in his mind. Allison could distract them while himself and Diego snuck in. Luther could stand by in case something went wrong and attempt to conjure Ben. He would have to see the amount of hostels in the room and the layout of the warehouse before he formed a real plan, but the mission was too high risk to be charging in there recklessly. 

It was the strangest thing. He felt comfortable in his surroundings and in his situation, which was incredibly rare for Klaus. But he still couldn’t quite ignore how uncomfortable he felt in himself. He felt too big. His body was not his own. He couldn’t move without messing something up. His confidence was haunted by self deprecating thoughts that he didn’t know Luther had. They were probably put there by dad. The self doubt, the uncomfortableness.

It felt like he knew he could lead the mission, logically. He felt as though he had done this so many times before that strategy and planning were a sixth sense to him. But there was this ever-present knowledge that he would never be good enough and he was going to mess everything up.

This was so backwards for Klaus. He often felt uncomfortable with his surroundings, but he’d never felt such lack of confidence before. 

His practical brain was fighting his anxiety.

He was fighting with dad.

Did the big guy always feel so...conflicted?

  
  
  


The car pulled into a nearby parking lot. Stopping right in front of the building would be way too obvious. Luther was overwhelmed and underprepared. Klaus was filled with self doubt and confliction.

Diego was already forming a plan to complete the mission and save the hostages single-handedly. Allison was debating in her head whether or not she should use her rumors, the image of Patrick’s face of betrayal stuck in her mind. 

Five couldn’t pace because of his leg, so instead he was staring at his phone, waiting for updates and muttering. Vanya sat next to him, hugging a pillow, the feeling of isolation creeping back in.

Ben sighed. Worst case scenario, the mission would fail completely and they would all be injured or dead. Best case scenario, the same thing happens but it’s funny.

Woo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh this is getting exciting and also panic-inducing
> 
> Btw the woo was only slightly inspired by Katherine Howard’s “so we got married, woo.” It’s not my fault the song came on. (I love six so much)


	7. we hope your rules and wisdom choke you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> haha fun mission time this is gonna go so great

Diego pulled into a parking lot about two buildings over from the warehouse. The second the car was in park he threw the door open and started walking.

“Diego, wait!” Klaus stumbled out of the car, lost his balance, barely caught himself, and followed Diego. “We can’t just go marching in there, I have a plan.

“You have a plan?” Diego looked at him skeptically. As much as Klaus looked like Luther, Diego knew it was still Klaus. And Klaus never had plans.

“Really, I do. I think it’ll work maybe. It’s weird, like, I’m still Klaus but I have Luther’s brain. I can think like he does if I want to.”

“I don’t want you thinking like yourself or thinking like Luther.” Diego’s pace quickened. It felt like forever since he’d been on a mission and he was sure he could figure it out on his own. 

Klaus kept up with Diego’s pace easily. “First, we need to know the layout of the building. Usually I would just send Five in, but he’s not here. So I’m thinking you could sneak in through the side and you can check it out for us. You’re always brooding in the shadows so you should be able to blend in. They’re waiting for someone to come negotiate with them, so they probably have some guys toward the front of the building and some in another room with the hostages.” They were getting close to the warehouse now. “So maybe Allison could pretend to be a negotiator and distract them while the rest of us-”   
  


“We’re here. I’m gonna sneak in through the side door.” Diego started walking around looking for a side door.

“Um, yeah, that’s what I-”

“Where’s he going?” Allison asked, her and Luther finally catching up with Klaus.

“Best case scenario, he’s following my plan. Worst case scenario, he’s doing whatever the hell he wants and blowing the whole mission.” Klaus replied.

“You have a plan?” She had less skepticism than Diego did, but it’s still there. 

Klaus explained the plan as quickly as he could, finishing with, “And all of this is assuming that Diego actually comes back to tell us the layout.”

“What if they figure out that I’m not actually a negotiator? Or the ones protecting the hostages call for help?” Allison asked. Luther just stood there looking worried.

“I figured you could just rumor-”   
  


Klaus was cut off by the sound of shattering glass from the back of the building. It seemed Diego was not following Klaus’s plan, since the glass was immediately followed by some shouting. Allison sprinted toward the sound.

Klaus tried to follow her, but Luther caught his arm.

“Wait, wait. What am I supposed to do? You didn’t mention me once in your plan! I’m supposed to be the leader on these missions.” Luther complained. If Luther had been in his own body, Klaus would’ve been intimidated. But the way Luther looked now, a full foot shorter than him, Klaus thought Luther just looked whiny.

Which is why he was filled with triumph, importance, and a hint of vengeance as he said, “You’re the lookout. If anything goes wrong try to conjure Ben.”

Klaus smiled slyly as he walked away, leaving Luther standing there, looking offended and surprised.

When Klaus arrived, he quickly realized he could not fit through the small bathroom window that Diego had broken through. He couldn’t go back in the direction Luther was standing because that would probably ruin the moment he’d just had, so he went the long way around to the front entrance. It was exactly what he had predicted.

The front entrance opened up to what used to be a small office, another door on the opposite wall leading to the main warehouse area. There were three men seated at a fold up table engaged in a heated argument. They almost didn’t notice Klaus, and for a moment he couldn’t believe his luck. He could take them all out right now if he caught them off guard. Unfortunately, at that moment, his phone started blaring loudly with a ringtone he recognized as Five’s.

“Little bitch.” Klaus muttered as all three men grabbed their guns and turned towards him. He took a deep breath and tried to look serious, but he felt ridiculous trying to act in Luther’s oversized body. “I’m a hostage negotiator. I came unarmed, like requested, so put your guns down.”

By some miracle, they actually believed him. Although they didn’t put their guns down like Klaus had wanted, they only lowered them. Klaus felt completely lost, and decided to just try to improvise.

“The mayor has agreed to give you the money you asked for, as long as you let the hostages go first.” Klaus, who was getting braver, took a step forward.

“How do we know that you won’t just arrest us as soon as we let them go?” The guy in the middle asked, stepping out from behind the table and standing in front of Klaus. 

“Um-”

The door between the office and the warehouse burst open. There was a fourth man, sweat dripping down the side of his face, clutching his gun loosely. He shouted, “Someone’s trying to free the hostages! Took out three of our guys, and the four left are fighting them!” Then the fourth man ran back into the warehouse, probably expecting them to follow him. He must’ve been so panicked that he didn’t even see Klaus.

The man standing in front of Klaus barely had time to look back at him in anger when Klaus took a swing at his face. He hit the guy so hard he flew across the room, dropping his gun, which Klaus picked up. His instincts felt sharper.

“Drop the guns!” 

Klaus wasn’t sure if he had ever said a sentence in such a commanding tone in his life. The two men dropped their guns immediately, recognizing that Klaus was twice their size, armed, and seemed to know what he was doing. Klaus was okay at hand to hand combat. He wasn’t quite as skilled as the rest of his siblings but he still had been trained to fight his entire childhood.

And Klaus in his own body didn’t have any long range attacks like Diego, Allison, Vanya, or Ben. He didn’t have any close range powers like Luther or Five, either. This led to him having to fight adults twice his size at thirteen with no advantages. So he’d developed some interesting fighting techniques, his go to being jumping on his opponents back.

So it wasn’t as if Klaus was completely incompetent when it came to fighting. But he had never been able to get two criminals to drop their guns and walk out of the building to turn themselves over to the police waiting outside. He had never been intimidating. He was pretty sure it was supposed to feel good, but it just felt wrong. The triumph he felt when he told Luther to be the lookout was gone. 

When he opened the doors to the larger room, he felt like he had no idea what he was doing.

\-----------------------

Luther was shocked.

His siblings were inside risking their lives and he was supposed to just  _ wait here _ .

Luther considered his options for about a moment before deciding to find the window that Diego broke. When he saw it at first he thought there was no way he’d be able to fit through it, and he was about to walk away when Ben reminded him that he was in Klaus’s body now. 

Klaus had always been rather tall, but he was thin enough to fit through the window.

Luther tried not to question why Klaus was so thin for his height or wonder if Klaus hated being the lookout as much as Luther did. He had more important things to be worrying about at the moment.

When Luther found Diego and Allison, things didn’t look great.

All of the hostages had been freed, and were crouched behind various crates to get away from the fight. Allison was passed out next to a pile of ropes, and Luther assumed she had been freeing the hostages when someone knocked her out. Diego was in intense combat with three people at once and there were two more on the floor with various knife wounds.

Luther felt his hands ball up and turn cold. He looked down and saw that they were glowing blue. He was summoning Ben on instinct.

\-----------------

Ben helped Diego with the three that he was fighting. Diego through a knife at the man who had gone to warn the three in the office. By the time Klaus came back, it seemed that the mission had been completed. Luther ran over to Allison to check on her, and found that she hadn’t been injured too badly, just knocked out. While Klaus was yelling at Diego about not following the plan and Diego was yelling right back that he didn’t need Klaus’s plan, Ben was the only one who saw the last man. 

The man they hadn’t seen, who had been hiding behind some packaging. The man that was positioned there in case this exact thing happened. The man that Diego could’ve spotted if he had stayed hidden and explored the factory before attacking. The man Klaus might’ve been able to catch if he had taken the quicker way to the entrance and arrived sooner, rather than going the long way to avoid Luther. The man Allison could’ve stopped if she had rumored the guy she was fighting instead of freezing up at the thought of using her powers and getting knocked out. The man Ben might’ve been able to stop if Luther had more control over his powers and had kept him corporal for longer. The man that grabbed a hostage when no one was looking, escaped through the shattered window, and climbed into a van that Luther would’ve seen if he had stayed at his position of lookout.

The van was gone by the time Ben told Luther what had happened, and Luther told the rest of their siblings. 

They may have saved most of the hostages, but all of them considered this mission to be a failure.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> imma be honest, people. I made a schedule, actually stuck to it, wrote the chapter before Sunday, and completely forgot to post it idk wuts wrong with me lmao. so um...sry this is late but every chapter is kinda late so imma try to not be late


	8. I think we're alone now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this got a little sappy but ya know wut I like writing fluff godamm it and its my fic
> 
> also I should probably apologize for being late but I've been late so many times I kinda feel like this is just the normal amount of time now

The academy was back at the house, sitting around a table in the living room, thinking in silence. Or rather in Diego’s case, brooding in silence. It was quiet for a long time until Klaus couldn’t take it anymore. 

“Why didn’t you follow my plan?”

“I didn’t see a reason to.” Diego mumbled. Despite the horrible outcome of his actions, stubbornness was still his greatest super power.

“Well, do you see the reason now?” Klaus was still trying to figure out why he cared so much about the plan. He had never felt so pressured to protect his siblings before, he had only ever felt like he needed to catch up to them. But back there, the second he stepped out of the van, the weight on his shoulders was so huge he couldn’t have lifted it with super strength. 

“Why did you even make a plan, Klaus?” Diego deflected. “You never think through missions, you don’t even think through most of your actions.”

Klaus didn’t need these extra problems. He should be back in his own body, looking for Dave. But he felt like he was starting to forget who he was. He was getting so wrapped up in Luther’s problems. Problems he hadn’t known existed.

Well, he knew Luther could be problematic, but he didn’t know about all of Luther’s problems.

“I don’t know! I felt like I was supposed too? I don’t know. God, Luther’s brain is more complicated than I thought.”

“Thanks.” Mumbled the real Luther, who’d been looking at the floor up until now.

“Well if you thought you were supposed to lead the mission because you’re Number One now than you’re more like Luther than I thought.” Diego was squeezing the hilt of a knife like a stress ball.

“Why are you two fighting? We all made mistakes on this one.” Allison looked at the floor, her elbow on her knee, pinching the bridge of her nose. She rubbed her forehead like she had a headache.

“Well, some of us decided to stay home because we assumed our siblings were just competent enough to handle this.” Five muttered.

“Decided? Are you kidding? You were calling me like every two minutes! You don’t call someone when they’re on a mission!” Klaus shouted.

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on tracking that van?” Vanya asked, quietly. She was starting to think maybe she should’ve gone on the mission. But on the other hand, she could’ve made it even worse somehow, couldn’t she? 

There were a few mumbles before Five opened up a laptop. The assassin part of him wondered why they were so torn up over one person, but the rest of him was willing to hack into the pentagon if that’s what it took to find this van.

Klaus sighed, sitting up. “I can’t just sit here, I’m going to Kim’s.”

Kim’s was a local bakery/coffee shop that they all seemed to like, by some miracle. It would probably be busy on a morning like this, but Klaus didn’t really care.

He grabbed Luther’s huge coat off the hook near the front door. Klaus was not used to being so uncomfortable in his body. But with Luther’s instincts, he was impulsively covering up his arms.

He had just managed to squeeze into the front seat of the car when the passenger door opened and someone slid into the seat next to him.

“We need to talk.” Luther said, buckling his seatbelt. 

“No shit.”

\-----------------------

“So who the hell is Dave?”

Luther didn’t think the team had ever been so bad at working together as they had been yesterday. Even as kids they had a certain way of communicating, but he had felt completely cut off. 

The only explanation for that was they had changed. They were more complex, had more problems. Luther had never felt like he’d changed. He felt like he stayed the same and everyone else changed. But maybe he was different too, because obviously Klaus was feeling all of his insecurities right now. He hadn’t seen Klaus in a coat that wasn’t lined with fur in fifteen years. 

So he needed answers. They needed their communication back, it was the only way to ever make the team work again. For the first time, he truly believed there could be no secrets, judgements, or manipulations between them. They needed to talk.

He needed to work things out with Klaus. He needed to understand what was going on.

“Maybe we start with something slower.” Klaus sipped his hot chocolate, then wrinkled his nose at it.

“Klaus, you have my brain right now, which means you’re not as good at deflecting as you usually are.” Luther was pretty sure he had just dissed himself, but he didn’t really care.

“Maybe we should talk about you first, Mr. Hidden Emotions. I have never felt so uncomfortable in my body. And,” Klaus stretched out the word ‘And” so Luther assumed he was trying to shift the conversation away from Dave by stalling, “there’s this weird feeling like I need to be doing things for other people? What is that about?”

“I know I have problems, we’re here to talk about your problems.”   
  


“Excuse me? I’m not the reason that mission failed. Well, not the only reason.” He paused briefly. “We need to talk about you too. Suppression doesn’t work, Luther. I would know.”

Luther glared at his coffee. They had both ordered their usual favorites, before remembering that they had different tastes now. Sighing, he grabbed Klaus’s hot chocolate and let Klaus grab his coffee. 

Luther was reminded once again how hard it was to focus when a ghost started singing horrendously in the corner.

“Ok, maybe I have some issues too.” He mumbled.

“Luther, you’re always advocating for us to work together. So work with us. You don’t have to be the boss every time. Next time, let’s just work out the plan together. That way everyone’s on board and you don’t feel so much pressure.”

Luther’s frowned. That did sound better. He had just been doing things one way for so long. 

When it came down to it, Reginald still somehow managed to be at fault for all of their problems. 

“Klaus, I think I owe you an apology.”

Klaus furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I’ve never really understood you. You’ve always seemed carefree even when your life was arguably the most difficult. You’ve always said you want to be included on missions, but you never paid attention or followed the plan. You always seem to contradict yourself.”

Klaus just chuckled, avoiding looking at his brother. Luther resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“I think I get it now though, at least a little bit. I don’t know what’s going on with Dave and the ghosts or whatever but I can barely follow a sentence when other people talk right now. I feel comfortable with myself but uncomfortable with everything around me, it’s the exact opposite of what I’m used to.”

“It’s like I said, Lulu, I’m complicated.”

It was so strange to hear his own voice speaking in Klaus’s strange tone, and he cringed at the nickname, but he carried on.

“What I’m trying to say is I’m sorry for assuming you didn’t care. You act like you don’t care, but I think you do. I think it’s hard for you to care but you do it anyway. I’m sorry for judging you.”   
  
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you apologize.”

“Then I’m sorry about that too.”

They finally met eyes. Klaus stared for a second before taking a sip of the coffee and looking somehow ashamed by the fact that he enjoyed it. Like he was somehow betraying hot chocolate.

“Look at that, my older brother finally grew up.” Klaus mumbled. Luther could tell it was something he would’ve usually said to Ben. “I’m...I guess I’m sorry too. I always assumed you just thought you were better than us. But it’s more like the expectations you set for yourself are higher than the ones you set for other people.” Luther wondered if Klaus was always this observant, but not able to use the ability because of the background noise. “You feel like you’re supposed to be better, but you don’t feel better. It fucking sucks. I’m sorry for being mad at you for judging me when I judged you first.”   
  


Luther smiled just a little. “I’ve never heard  _ you _ apologize before.”

“Well you were all heartfelt and cheesy, I would’ve looked like an asshole if I didn’t say something.”

The Hargreeves had always had complicated relationships with each other, but Klaus and Luther had always had the most distance between them. It wasn’t always like that, but that’s how it had ended up. Reginald had made them into the family’s pride and the family’s disappointment. 

So what could be better revenge than Luther and Klaus finally understanding each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> two Hargreaves sitting down to talk about feelings?? this really is an au
> 
> also shoutout to megaultraboop for making me stop procrastinating. I haven't written in a while and this was fun

**Author's Note:**

> Luther said he wanted to be Klaus and it annoyed me so here we go


End file.
